Joe Biden has said that the US is "crying out for leadership".
This comes amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of over 100,000 Americans and counting, and George Floyd's death, which has sparked Black Lives Matter protests around the country.
The former vice president said that the mass protests sweeping the nation are a "wake up call", and he repeated Floyd's dying words, "I can't breathe" in the hope that Americans would try and "listen" and "understand" them.
Watch Biden's speech below:Biden then slammed President Trump, claiming that he is fanning the "flames of hate" and adding: "Donald Trump has turned this country into a battlefield riven by old resentments and fresh fears."
Per the Guardian, after reviewing the bodycam footage of Floyd's arrest, state charging documents allege that the now-former Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for a total of nearly nine minutes.
It also states that Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for two minutes and 43 seconds after Floyd had become non-responsive.
Floyd's family has since released a statement calling Chauvin's arrest a "welcome but overdue step on the road to justice” and added that members “expected a first-degree murder charge" - which they still demand.
"The pain that the black community feels over this murder and what it reflects about the treatment of black people in America is raw and spilling out on to streets across [the country]," the statement added.
It concluded by saying:
"Today, George Floyd's family is having to explain to his children why their father was executed by police on video. It's essential that the City closely examines and changes its policing policies and training procedures to correct for the lack of proper field supervision; the use of appropriate, non-lethal restraint techniques; the ability to recognize medical signs associated with the restriction of airflow, and the legal duty to seek emergency medical care and stop a civil rights violation."
Under Minnesota law, a first-degree murder charge would require prosecutors to prove Chauvin’s actions were willful and premeditated.
A list of resources to support the Black Lives Matter movement can be found, here.